253 b, R, v. 3. Read dochter.
[1]. This manuscript, which Fry bought in Glasgow in 1810, contained several other ballads, “but written so corruptly as to be of little or no authority.” It did not occur to Fry that the illiteracy of the drummer gave his ballads the best of authority. I have done what I could to recover the manuscript, but in vain, though I had the kindest assistance in Bristol from the Rev. J. Percivall, Mr Francis Fry, and Mr J. F. Nicholls.
[2]. See Motherwell’s apt remarks, Minstrelsy, p. 1.
[3]. “It is sometimes said that this outlaw possessed the old Castle of Morton in Dumfriesshire, now ruinous.... The mention of Durisdeer, a neighboring parish, adds weight to the tradition.” Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, 1833, III, 114 f. Mr W. Bennett, writing in 1826 in The Dumfries Monthly Magazine, III, 250, of which he was editor, speaks of a field a little to the southwest of Lochmaben as still showing the trace of a circular tower, which was “called Cockiesfield, from one John Cock, or O’Cock, who had there his residence, and who during his lifetime was one of the most renowned freebooters in Annandale.” Mr Macmath, who pointed out the passage to me, observes that in Thomson’s map of Dumfriesshire, 1828, the name is given “Cocketfield,” and that there is also a Cocket Hill.
[4]. Colophon: [P]rynted at London, in Fletestrete, at [the si]gne of the Sonne, by me Iohn [By]ddell. In the yere of our lord god m.ccccc.xxxvj. The seconde daye of June. Iohn̄ Byddell.
Eight lines wanting: 1203,4; 121; 1683,4. Mutilated at the beginning: 169; 170. Mutilated at the end: 1641; 1653; 1671.
[5]. Eleven lines wanting: 602,3,4; 674; 681,2; 1003; 1044; 1051,2; 1104. Mutilated at the beginning: 61–641; 643–673; 754–831; 904,5,6; 964; 1053–1103; 1111,2. Mutilated at the end: 601; 1013; 1023; 1031; 1042,3. Elsewhere: 972,3; 1041.
[6]. Colophon. Imprinted at London, in Lothburye, by Wyllyam Copeland.
[7]. “Two leaves, discovered in the pasteboard or fly-leaves of a book received from abroad.”